AI Agents in Action: Transforming Hotel Operations
Here's how hotel visionaries are pushing the boundaries of guest experience with intelligent automation
AI is transforming hospitality faster than ever before. Since ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, billions have poured into AI, and hotels that leverage this technology early will stay ahead. As a founder deeply embedded in hotel AI automation, here's a concise, actionable state of how visionary hotels are harnessing AI today.
Humans
Phase 1 - 2023
Phase 2 - 2024
Phase 3 - 2025
We’re at a stage where people are beginning to accept that chatGPT is here to stay. That’s not to say that we’ll all move at the same speed. There are broadly 6 stages for adoption of a disruptive technology and we’re getting to the stage where AI is crossing the chasm for the hotel industry.
Technology
This is much easier to track than human behaviour. OpenAI simplified this for us by defining 5 steps on the path to AGI (artificial general intelligence where AI > human).
Step 1 - conversational AI has been employed in chatbots across hotel websites and messaging automation for SMS / Whatsapp. Older generation tech companies had built in-house conversational models which have largely become obsolete due to LLM technology.
Step 2 - reasoners. Incredibly helpful for individual contribution and a partner to help you walk through the steps necessary to solve problems. Reasoning improves accuracy and fights back against hallucinations. Limited use across the organization.
Step 3 - AUTONOMOUS AGENTS ← WE ARE HERE
Step 4 - innovators. Think scientific progress, discovering a new law of mathematics, etc.
Step 5 - organizational AI. Can an AI manage a score of agents to orchestrate actions across an organization?
Before we dive in, there are 2 megatrends to bear in mind
Mega Trends
1. Cost of AI is dropping 10x every 12 months
This means that AI can be used for previously considered frivolous tasks / tasks that humans could not and would not do. Imagine calling every guest 24 hours before check-in and asking if they would like to personalize their stay - baby bed, birthday, quiet room, gluten free, etc.
2. No current limits to AI intelligence
But..but..but hallucinations? Erase this from your memory.
AI isn't hitting intelligence limits anytime soon. Longer thinking times and increased training data continuously boost AI accuracy and capability. This emerging behaviour allows the AI to become more self-aware and hence more accurate with its output.
Current State - Autonomous AI Agents
"Agents" emerge as AI systems capable of operating autonomously for extended periods. These advanced models can spend several days acting on a user's behalf, taking on complex tasks, making decisions, and adapting to changing circumstances without constant human oversight.
At this stage I’d like to divide agents into 2 categories that would deeply impact the hospitality industry
Creative (consumer) agents - find me a hotel room in Stockholm with the best sauna. Lots of implications here for hotel discovery + distribution. Don’t sleep on this. It’s likely that first movers will have a momentary advantage.
Agentic workflows (for hotel operators) - get some work done for me following a well defined set of guidelines. I’d like to double click on this topic because it’s where I’m spending most of my time.
Agentic workflows
Most of us think of AI as conversational. Reply to a guest message. Help me draft an email. Use data from my knowledge base and don’t make stuff up. Valuable but still surface level automation.
AI agents take this to a whole new level of performance by connecting to the underlying technology (PMS, housekeeping + maintenance tickets, CRM, etc).
Here’s a good visualization of the level of sophistication of AI agents
Automating Tasks
At D3x, we’re increasing the number of tasks that we can execute at step 2 of this journey and slowly making our way towards complete Workflow automation.
Some of the tasks we already automate at D3x include:
Housekeeping - “I need a towel”. We need to figure out, who’s I? Which room are they in? Is towel an in the housekeeping system. And then construct an API query to hit the housekeeping system with the towel request and then convert the API response into “tone of voice” response to the guest.
Booking Confirmation - “I didn’t get an email - is my booking confirmed?”. As simple as this may seem, this question needs authentication. Is the person messaging the AI allowed to access reservation information. Once authentication is complete (last name, arrival date, res ID), the AI would then be able to reply using realtime reservation information retrieved from the PMS.
Upsell - “Can I check-in early?”. Here’s where a reservation might need to be modified to include a charge to the customer one the price has been fetched and confirmed with the guest. The same principle would apply to parking, late checkout and something as random as an island tour.
Maintenance - “the air-conditioning doesn’t work”. Here’s where the AI needs to attempt to assist the guest with self-service - did you close the door? is the key card in the holder? If that doesn’t work, a ticket needs to be logged in the maintenance system and assigned to the relevant department.
On our roadmap includes tasks such as handling lost and found requests, group booking funnel + table reservations for the in-house restaurant.
Workflow Automation
The next step beyond handling basic tasks would be where agents can just take care of tasks by themselves. Imagine that every single guest phone call asking for their invoice to include their company name could be automatically handled by an AI workflow running in the background. No need for wait for the reservation department or for the finance team to get in at 9am on Monday. Hand it over to the AI and forget about it!
The holy grail of workflow automation would be booking modifications. This would involve a series of checks and operations for numerous scenarios
I need to move my room
Will be arriving one day late or checking out a day early
What if the rate plan doesn’t have availability?
Can I get another room for my friend?
AI + APIs + business process + guardrails = Agentic automation
The hospitality industry is at a tipping point because from a technical standpoint, the road ahead of us looks pretty clear. Managing humans for change is where the challenge lies.
Hotels embracing autonomous AI agents today will not only streamline operations and elevate guest experiences—they'll lead the charge into the future. As technology continues to evolve at lightning speed, staying informed and proactive isn't just smart business—it's essential survival. The question isn't whether your hotel will adopt AI automation, but how soon you’ll start.
What can D3x do for you today:
Address every guest request instantly - anytime, in any language - available for SMS, WhatsApp, Phone, Email, Instagram, Facebook, Website Chatbot
Automate repetitive tasks such as booking confirmations, housekeeping or maintenance requests overnight
Augment revenue by tapping into conversational commerce through smart upsells
Are you ready to transform your hotel's operations and step into the future?
Reach out if you’d like to learn more about automating your hotel operations.